I think I'm a part of the first generation of journalists to skip print media entirely, and I've learned a lot these last few years at Forbes. My work has appeared on TVOvermind, IGN, and most importantly, a segment on The Colbert Report at one point. Feel free to follow me on Twitter or on Facebook, write me on Facebook or just email at paultassi(at)gmail(dot)com. I'm also almost finished with my sci-fi novel series, The Earthborn Trilogy.

The Injustice Of The YouTube Content ID Crackdown Reveals Google's Dark Side

Right now, the gaming world is up in arms over a series of new Draconian measures that YouTube has implemented to slam content creators with copyright strikes, violation notices and revenue redistribution. Unfortunately, I’ve seen this discussed very little outside the gaming press, and I’m guessing it’s not that people don’t care, it’s that they don’t quite understand what’s happening.

And what is happening? GoogleGoogle is doing something downright despicable, which is a sentence you don’t hear every day. As such, this entire fiasco is an important lesson about frivolous claims, censorship, and monopolies, and the dangers of all three.

I’m going to try and present the facts of what’s been going on so far in a way that might be a little easier to digest than say, a three hour podcast on the matter. See if you understand just how terribly wrong this all is by the end.

- Many gamers make video game-related content on YouTube. In these videos, they play the games in question, talk about them, review them, edit them into cool or funny clips, and so on. The developer gets free press for their game while YouTube and the video creator split the ad revenue that runs on the video. PopularPopular video creators can earn a living making content like this, which essentially means YouTube is their full time job.

- YouTube recently implemented a wide-reaching system known as “Content ID.” It automatically scans videos for audio and video content deemed “infringing” by those who own it. Last week, the system went into overdrive and thousands upon thousands of notices went out to YouTubers, mostly gamers, claiming their videos were in violation of copyright, and are owned by someone else.

- Content ID does not simply issue warnings to YouTubers. When a claim is filed, Content ID immediately starts diverting ad revenue from the video creator to whoever filed the claim.

- Often times, claims are filed by companies that have literally nothing to do with the game in question. Other times, claims are filed by developers who do own the material, but have publicly expressed no desire to pursue action against the video makers, yet the automated system has filed the claims anyway. Sometimes it’s a complete, convoluted mix-up, like a company who has licensed music to be used in a game, taking down a gameplay video of said game because the automated system believes the licensed music is being used improperly, which it isn’t.

- The system has dramatically more false positives than legitimate claims. Content creators have had their own self-created music and games flagged under the system. YouTubers have had their own in-person interviews flagged. Some have been punished for using videos widely identified as fair use, just because another organization (falsely) claimed them as their own content through Content ID.

- The entire Content ID process is not only flawed in finding infringing content, but operates under a “guilty until proven innocent” system. When a claim is filed, money will automatically be diverted into the pockets of whoever made the claim, and can only be reversed if the claim is disputed. YouTube, meanwhile, makes the exact same 45% revenue split from the video, now sharing it with the new Content ID claimant rather than the content creator.

- Disputing a claim is a lengthy process that can take up to a month. Many content creators have had dozens of their most popular videos flagged, and it will take them eons to get all the claims resolved.

- Now, under the new system, content creators must submit their videos to be reviewed by the Contend ID system for possible infringement before they go live. This can take anywhere from hours to days, and in a video game industry where release embargoes are down to the minute, not releasing a video on time can result in an enormous loss of revenue.

- The entire scenario is essentially like your boss coming to you and saying “I’m not sure the work you did for this past month is legitimate. I’m giving your paycheck to Jim who told me you stole his work. You can dispute this over the course of the next month.”

- Throughout all of this, YouTube and Google haven’t acknowledged they’ve done anything wrong at all. They’ve said nothing of false claims or the system they’ve built that declares video makers guilty until proven innocent by a lengthy, often convoluted appeals process. They simply tell everyone to dispute any incorrect claim without any acknowledgment the system is rife with false positives that result in an immediate loss of income for video creators.

- Lastly, there’s little content creators can even do to fight this system. In the video world, YouTube is more or less the only game in town. Most of the time, if you don’t have a presence on the site, you simply don’t exist. There isn’t a viable alternative to YouTube for these video game content creators to shift to, and so they’re stuck in this Content ID nightmare.

To sum up, just like in a court of law, whoever is accusing these content creators of copyright violation need to provide sufficient evidence for their claims other than this auto-flagging, wide-sweeping algorithm. YouTube has instituted as a system where they get paid either way, as they don’t care if they split the ad revenue with the content creator or the claimant. And with the content creators having no viable alternative to YouTube, they’re forced to try and extract themselves from these false accusations while losing income at the same time. They can’t set up shop anywhere else without an exhausting amount of work and possibly destroying their brand in the process.

I understand YouTube wants to protect themselves from lawsuits. I understand some sort of automated process is needed as a hundred hours of video are uploaded to the site every minute. And yet, the system they’ve implemented is casting a wide net that’s caught one or two sharks, but hundreds of thousands of innocent fish in the process. But meat is meat, and they get paid either way.

The idea that revenue can immediately be diverted to a third party through this system without anything approaching a reasonable level of proof and discussion is obscene. This entire situation has revealed that Google isn’t always the benevolent overlord we believe it to be. Sometimes it can be iron-fisted in maddening and confusing ways, and those affected by these recent policies have little recourse due to the size of YouTube and the fact that their entire careers are tied to the whims of the site.

Hopefully YouTube realizes their error and course corrects. Right now, it seems like just a few angry people are splashing around in the gaming realm, and it’s not enough to get them to sit up and take notice about the scope of what they’ve done, and what it means for content creation on their site as a whole.

And for gaming, YouTube is moving hard against the grain in an age where next generation consoles are literally built to share gameplay online via streaming services like Twitch. Perhaps Twitch can step up and provide a replacement service for a scene under siege by YouTube, but it’s a colossal technical project, and far more difficult than it sounds.

Google has turned on some of its most devoted allies and advocates, and everyone should be taking notice. Hopefully this is all resolved soon, and content creators won’t live in fear of their livelihoods being erased by a flawed algorithm.

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Now is the perfect time to take advantage of their bad press and start creating another video sharing site. Something that will cater to gamers. Perhaps even in conjunction with some publishers and developers.

As a content creator myself (I do trophy and achievement guides), I would be furious if my videos were flagged. However, since I didn’t get around to monetizing them it hasn’t seemed to happen yet. Now that this fiasco is going on I have no desire to even try and monetize them or generate new content.

In the end it is the users and YouTube that will lose out the most. Because if you don’t have people like myself going from small time creators to full-fledged ones, there will eventually be no new/good content. Especially if there is a mass exodus of established ones.

Either Google will fix this ASAP or it will be the beginning of the end for their service as we know it.

I think the big issue with this not getting much press is that not a lot of people make their living off of youtube. So this kind of thing is very hard to relate to. It is a bit of a convoluted issue too, not soundbite friendly, which is what much of our media has sadly been reduced to.

It is definitely a ridiculous system from what you’re describing, particularly the “guilty until proven innocent” side of it. After all this time, these companies still haven’t figured out that cracking down too hard on social media activity like this is more trouble then it is worth?

It’s Google’s job to make sure that all the systems they put in place across all their services can’t be abused, ContentID included. Feigning ignorance to actual problems is not an option. Well, it is since they have little-to-no competition, but it’s irritating a lot of people. And these aren’t just small-time users, either. People with millions of views and subscriptions are being affected and voicing their concern and annoyance, be they Let’s Players, reviewers, walkthrough creators, and so forth.

The people who have their own site and another video host to use for that site are probably okay. I’m kind of worried about the people who have all their videos on Youtube and nowhere else, but at the same time I think people should have been more aware of the fact that companies aren’t going to be nice forever.

The ContentID system was created because Google didn’t want to get sued again like what happened with Viacom. Right now this is them ramping up their attempts to put on a pretty face to prove that nothing is wrong. It’s been made very clear that Google only cares about their well-being and not for the people who use their services.

It’s time for a massive, passionate-yet-disciplined boycott. It’s the “only game in town” only because of past ease-of-use, openness, and centrality. Better that thousands of us go it alone, and be dispersed like the old days than live under this nonsense. Youtube and Google are not too big to fail. We are the net, expect us.

Youtube’s copyright takedown system has been open to abuse for a while now. When the details of Sega’s blitz of Shining Force videos, which included copyright claims against videos which merely discussed Shining Force without containing any copyright content from any of the games, came to light (they were doing it to gerrymander their search ranking, there was no intent to protect the copyright of Shining Force as a series) it was time for the automated copyright claim system to be seriously looked at.

Really, what needs to be done is that companies who are found to be raising too many invalid claims should lose access to the automated system, their copyright claims would have to be human validated. At their own cost (refundable if the claim is found valid).

although I’m a Techno-Dinosaur , and not a vidio gamer , I appreciated your article and the concise , comprehensible delivery… The Corporate Monsters of the Internet are certainly as ruthless as their old school counterparts, maybe more so as they act without warning at giga speed.. my experience was with Ebay/pay pal (same company / umbrella ) Sellers cannot give negative feedback, buyers can give unsubstantiated feedback , ebay can apply account restrictions and pay pal holding of funds… and after 6 weeks of adhering to their guidelines ( with nothing but positive feedback) they ,without warning, ended my selling privileges indefinitely… “we reviewed your account” Corporate bastiches with little minds and deep pockets and no hearts !

While there are some teething problems, I’m glad to see YouTube take copyright seriously. Now with the Content ID system and enforcing of it, musicians can actually get paid for their work.. whether it’s being used as background to someone’s game-play or music being re-used with someone’s visuals. I say bravo.